Yellowstone National Park June 1999

Old Faithful

Yellowstone Falls 1999

In early June, 1999 we spent a week in Yellowstone. The winter of 1998-1999 was
especially wet and snowy so there was still a lot of snow around at higher elevations.
In fact there was so much snow that some of the park roads were still closed when we
arrived. It was an absolutely wonderful trip.

This was pre-digital camera so all the pictures we took were
with film. And we took a lot. Both black and white and color. In fact I still have
some rolls of black and white to develop. I scanned a few of the photos some time
ago, but have many many more to go. In December 2013 I looked at the 1999 photos
to get an idea of how the park as changed in the many years.

The most obvious change was in the growth of the forest. There is still some evidence
of the 1998 fire. But most of the burned area is now covered with trees.

I've added more photos of the 1999 trip to these pages.

Evidence of 1988 fire

Evidence of 1988 fire

In 1988 Yellowstone National Park suffered a series of major fires. The fires
burned from June to September when snow finally fell. The National Park Service has posted
the story of Yellowstone 1988 fires.

There was still considerable evidence of the great fire of 1988. There were
signs of recovery, but there were major areas of nothing but burned out trees.
Since many of the areas that burned were climax forest, it'll be many many years
before Yellowstone looks like it did before the 1988 fire.

In are 2008 trip we noticed that there were still areas where stark burned trees
still dominated the landscape. But in most places there were lots of new trees
and green replacing the burned out areas. Recovery is a long term process.